State of Secure Elements in Hardware wallets

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Hardware wallets are used as second chip for storing private keys and seed words. Here is the state of secure elements in hardware wallets.

Hardware wallets

Name Open Source Secure Element SE Model + Microcontroller Evaluation Assurance Level
Bitbox02 Nova YES YES Infineon OPTIGA Trust M (v3) + STM32… EAL6+
Cardware YES YES Optiga Trust M + STM32 EAL6+
HyperMate YES YES Infineon ? EAL6+
OneKey Classic 1S YES YES THD89 EAL6+
OneKey Pro YES YES TMC THD89 x4 EAL6+
Satochip/Satodime YES YES NXP J3H145 and NXP J3R110 EAL6+
Trezor Safe 3 YES YES Infineon OPTIGA Trust M (v3) + STM32F4 NDA-free EAL6+ !
Trezor Safe 5 YES YES Infineon OPTIGA Trust M (v3) + STM32U5 NDA-free EAL6+ !
Trezor Safe 7 YES YES Infineon OPTIGA Trust M (v3) + TROPIC01 NDA-free EAL6+ !
Cypherock X1 YES YES ATECC608A+NXP JCOP3 and ARM Cortex-M EAL5+ outdated chip 608A
KeyStone YES YES ARM Cortex-M0 EAL5+
Bitbox02 YES YES ATECC608B + ATSAMD51J20A N/A
Era wallet YES YES ATECC608B or ATECC608C + STM32H753 N/A
Hito YES YES nRF5340 N/A
Jade YES Virtual* N/A N/A
Jade Plus YES Virtual* N/A + ESP32-S3 N/A
Keepkey YES NO N/A + STM32 N/A
KeyStone3 (Pro) YES YES ATECC608B + Maxim DS28S60 (+ Maxim MAX32520) EAL?
Passport Core YES YES ATECC608C + STM32… N/A
Passport Prime YES YES ATECC608C + SAMA5D2 processor N/A
Prokey YES NO N/A + STM32F205VG N/A
Trezor One & T YES NO N/A + STM32F2/STM32F4 N/A
ColdCard Mk3 NO (MIT+CC) YES ATECC608B or ATECC608A + STM32L496RGT6 outdated chip 608A
ColdCard Mk4 NO (MIT+CC) YES ATECC608B+Maxim DS28C36B + STM32L4S5VIT6 N/A
ColdCard Q NO (MIT+CC) YES ATECC608B+Maxim DS28C36B + STM32… N/A
CoolWallet Pro NO (soon Y) YES NXP J3R110 EAL6+
CoolWallet S NO (soon Y) YES NXP P5CD081 EAL5+
D’CENT NO YES NXP P60 EAL5+
Hashwallet N/A YES Infineon SLE78 EAL6+
Husky HDW20 NO YES ATECC608A outdated chip
ImKey NO YES Infineon SLE 78CLUFX5000PH EAL6+
Jubiterwallet NO YES Infineon ? EAL6+
Kasse HK-1000 NO YES ST31H320 A03 EAL5+
Keevo NO YES Infineon Optiga Trust-P EAL5+
KeyPal N/A YES NXP MCU + ? N/A
Ledger Nano Gen5 NO YES ST33K1M5 + ? EAL6+
Ledger Nano S Plus NO YES ST33K1M5C + STM32… EAL6+
Ledger Nano X NO YES ST33J2M0 + STM32WB55 EAL5+
Ledger Stax / Flex NO YES ST33K1M5 + ? EAL6+
Ngrave N/A YES unknown built-in SE + STM32MP157C EAL7+
Opolo NO YES NXP ? + ARM Cortex M4 EAL6+
Safepal S1;X1 NO YES Unknown chip EAL5+
Secux NO YES Infineon SLE 97 EAL5+
Tangem NO YES Samsung SecureCore microchip ? EAL6+
Ledger Nano S NO YES ST31H320 + STM32F042K6 EAL5+
OneKey Classic YES YES HSC32I1 EAL6+*/EAL 4+
OneKey Mini YES YES ATECC608A outdated chip
OneKey Touch YES YES ATECC608A outdated chip

Source

Common Criteria EAL (Evaluation Assurance Level) Explained

The Common Criteria defines 7 evaluation assurance levels (EAL1-EAL7), each representing increasing levels of security testing and assurance:

EAL1 - Functionally Tested

  • Assurance: Minimal, basic functional testing
  • Analysis: Review of functional specification and some independent testing
  • Use case: Low security requirements, off-the-shelf products
  • Effort: Lowest cost and time

EAL2 - Structurally Tested

  • Assurance: Low to moderate security
  • Analysis: Requires design documentation, developer testing evidence, and independent vulnerability analysis
  • Use case: General commercial products with basic security needs
  • Effort: Still relatively low cost

EAL3 - Methodically Tested and Checked

  • Assurance: Moderate security
  • Analysis: Development environment controls, configuration management, more rigorous testing
  • Use case: Security-conscious commercial applications
  • Effort: Moderate investment required

EAL4 - Methodically Designed, Tested and Reviewed

  • Assurance: Moderate to high security
  • Analysis: Complete design documentation, security architecture analysis, extensive independent testing
  • Use case: Most common level for commercial security products (smart cards, firewalls, VPNs, hardware wallets)
  • Effort: Significant but practical for commercial products

EAL5 - Semiformally Designed and Tested

  • Assurance: High security
  • Analysis: Semi-formal design verification, advanced vulnerability analysis, covert channel analysis
  • Use case: High-security applications, military/government systems
  • Effort: Very high cost and time, requires specialized expertise

EAL6 - Semiformally Verified Design and Tested

  • Assurance: Very high security
  • Analysis: Semi-formal verification of design against specification, comprehensive independent testing
  • Use case: Ultra-high security environments, critical infrastructure
  • Effort: Extremely high cost, rarely achieved in practice

EAL7 - Formally Verified Design and Tested

  • Assurance: Extremely high security (highest level)
  • Analysis: Formal mathematical proof of security properties, complete formal verification
  • Use case: Theoretical maximum security, rarely if ever achieved in commercial products
  • Effort: Prohibitively expensive, requires formal methods expertise

Practical Context for Hardware Wallets

  • EAL4 is the “sweet spot” - provides good security assurance while remaining commercially viable
  • EAL5+ certification is extremely rare and expensive, typically only justified for military/government applications
  • Higher EAL ≠ more secure product - it means more rigorous evaluation process, not necessarily better security design
  • Many modern secure elements in hardware wallets target EAL5+ or EAL6+ certification (e.g., CC EAL6+, AVA_VAN.5)
  • NDA-free EAL6+ (like Trezor Safe series) means the certification was achieved without requiring non-disclosure agreements, allowing for true transparency

The choice of the AI

Asking Claude AI to look at the open-source wallets in this file, it would consider the Trezor Safe series (Safe 3, Safe 5, and Safe 7) to be the most secure for these reasons:

  1. NDA-free EAL6+ Certification - This is unique and crucial: - EAL6+ is the highest practical certification level - “NDA-free” means no non-disclosure agreements were required - Complete transparency - no hidden security compromises - Aligns perfectly with open-source principles
  2. Proven Secure Elements: - Infineon OPTIGA Trust M (v3) - industry-leading, well-audited chip - Safe 7 adds TROPIC01 - an open-source RISC-V chip (even more transparency!)
  3. Progressive Hardware: - Safe 3: STM32F4 microcontroller - Safe 5: STM32U5 microcontroller (newer) - Safe 7: TROPIC01 open-source chip (most advanced)

Other Strong Contenders:

  • Bitbox02 Nova - Same Infineon OPTIGA Trust M (v3), EAL6+, but not NDA-free
  • Satochip/Satodime - High-end NXP chips (J3H145, J3R110), EAL6+, but not NDA-free
  • OneKey Pro - TMC THD89 x4, EAL6+, interesting multi-chip approach

Why NDA-free Matters:

Most EAL6+ certifications require NDAs, meaning manufacturers must keep certain security details secret. The Trezor Safe series achieved the same certification without NDAs, meaning:

  • Full public disclosure is possible
  • No backdoors can be hidden under “security through obscurity”
  • True verifiability for the open-source community

Recommendation of the AI: Trezor Safe 7 (most advanced) or Safe 5 (proven) for maximum security in an open-source hardware wallet.